Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am a supporter of continued investment in aged care across the nation, but in particular I am seeking to support, as I always do, individual centres. I mention three aged care facilities in my electorate: Lyrebird Village in Drouin, Latrobe Valley Village in Moe and the Corner Inlet Community Care Association’s nursing home at Toora and associated facilities. I will just dwell on the Corner Inlet Community Care Association for a minute. It is a community owned, not-for-profit association operating in surplus. They operate two nursing homes—Banksia Lodge Hostel at Foster and Toora Nursing Home at Toora, where I visited recently, and I am there quite often.

I have seen the work that those wonderful people do in nursing homes. It takes particular people with particular expertise and particular heart to deal with people who are not sick but old. It takes compassion, care and heartfelt endeavour. I am sure that I am not the only member in Australia who recognises the work that people do within aged-care facilities. They are dedicated and put in an effort because sometimes, not all the time, they have very difficult clients. The Toora Nursing Home is the biggest employer in Toora. Toora is only a tiny place and Toora Nursing Home is not a big nursing home. They not only meet but exceed accreditation standards in quality of care. They have a very efficient and professional board of management. Good operations always—as you know, Mr Deputy Speaker Wilkie—come from good leadership and a community that actively supports their endeavours.

I will be speaking further about these issues with the new aged-care minister—about being able to support this group and others who have done the hard yards and stood on their own as a beacon of success in that community. These people have raised a very large amount of money to support themselves in the process. I can only appreciate how much a local community cares about their aged-care facilities when they do it in real terms—when they raise real dollars, big money, as an investment. It is an investment not only in the aged-care facility, the staff and leadership but in those who have paid such a high price in the past, many of them through two wars. These people have been the great investors in the community where I live and work, in South Gippsland and across Gippsland. I have mentioned the area that I am from. We owe a great debt to that generation and, in owing that debt, it has been with some gratification that I see the money that the Howard government has poured into the aged-care sector. There is always more to do. The government, above all, knows that there is always more to do. Six years ago, the government announced the whole-of-government approach to the ageing of Australia’s population and has pursued that ever since. This bill continues on that path. I commend the bill to the House.

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